The Blood Trial  Chapter One
by Sincerely Yours Tonight
Summary: I was inspired by the hunger games to write this, there are some similarities but there are many differences she its still in the works.


The Blood Trial

They had to know things, things I had never told another human being. Things about my life I had locked away in a box long ago. Eyes watching calculating my every escape attempt. How they saw what I was doing was the big question whom they were the bigger question. How long had I been here? I wouldn't know it seemed to drag on longer than a school day in here. I'm not claustrophobic if anything I like small places, they don't freak me out much as long as there is some sort of way out. I haven't seen anything other than the four cement walls for god knows how long, it's a four by six room with nothing but a bloodied jacket and a leaky pipe in the back left corner. The constant dripping of the pipe was driving me to insanity, just like the old medieval torture technique. They would tie their victims to a wooden table and drip water to the center of their foreheads for hours until they would talk. It was much like Edgar Allen Poe and the pendulum, you slowly feel yourself slip from sanity. As the pendulum slowly swings forward we read about him slowing going insane to the point that he believes he's broken free. Was this their intentions to make me talk? To make me go insane? The panic sets in and think I'm going to die, this is the end for me and I know I'll never see Niall or Rome, Mom or Dad and even worse I'll never see Aria again..

My tongue was dry and scratchy like sand paper or a cats tongue, my lips are so chapped that every time I scream out in frustration they crackle and bleed leaving behind a metallic taste on my tongue. A ginger ratty tangled mess rest on my head, the least they could do was provide a plastic comb. My tears have but long been spent and my will power is driven by nothing more but the pit pat of the dripping water. The gears in my mind started rotating, the pieces clicking together. "Wait" the sound of my voice unfamiliar and raspy, "Leaky pipe means a loose pipe" I say letting my brain work. If I could just break the pipe off there is a slight possibility of escape. Wrapping my dainty hands around the pips I pull with all my might, it doesn't even budge an inch. I try again and nothing happens, now isn't the time to give up so I continue to try.

After hours of pulling at the pipe I'm exhausted and just want to curl up in a ball then attempt to sleep. I know giving up is not an option, freedom is at the tip of my fingers I can almost feel it. My body aches and screams for me to stop but I keep pushing through it. One last pull I'm so close when the pipe yanks free I'm in shock and stagger backwards trying to catch myself from falling, as water pours from the pipe onto the floor. For a moment I just stand under the water and let the dirt wash away, even cupped some into my hands and took several drinks. When I'm done I grab a hold of the pipe and begin banging on the wall as water slowly rises in the room, after a while there is a good sized dent in the wall and I've scratched up my hands, my nails a bloody mess. Bending down I washed my hands clean of the blood then it's back to work. It's only after another hour of banging the wall that there is a small shimmer of light. Hope flows through my heart and I can smell the sunshine, but I'm tired and I don't want to continue. I slump to the floor in defeat not able to continue any further, there is an inch or so of water on the ground. It does not bother me that my pants are not wet. Rubbing my temples I sit there for what seems to be hours but I know it's only a few short moments.

While I rest I think of my home town and how everyone perceived me. If I died here would anyone but my family even care. I had no friends, but what I did have were many enemies. Back home I'm not liked apparently my bad temper tends to make me a little hostile towards people. It couldn't mean that maybe I was mean or rude because that's how the world treated me. My grandfather told me that when he was a child things weren't a simple as now, he lived through the take over and the end of the technological era. He was fifteen when the takeover happened he said the only thing he could remember were men coming to the village in all black and enforcing strict rules upon them. Anything that was a form of communication other than an old wall phone or a simple television was burned; the Empire or Caretakers didn't want us communicating for fear of a revolution. Other than the trials we see no problems with the Empire, most of us are kept well fed and clothed. Though some are poorer than others most people seem relatively happy. And when I say most I mean I do not like the empire one bit, last year I watch a thirteen year old dragged out of her home into the streets and whipped because she stole medicine that was too expensive for her mother.

Everything we do is approved by the empire, it all has to be approved. Clothes, shoes, hunting weapons, food, and water all must be approved before selling them. The citizens might not see what's going on but I do, it is dictatorship on the highest level. Our country focuses around the seven different trades most area's stick to one but we are free to do whatever we want with our land. Cotton is grown in the north east, wheat and other crops it the North West. Mining is done towards the epicenter of the country and fishing done on the sea shore. The south east focuses on herbs and berries while the south west where I live focus on hunting and trading. Fine jewels come from the mid east of the country and at the mid west is the capitol. Along the shore line fishing and trading with other countries is done. Though we are free to do as we please the land we live on forces us to do what the empire wants us to.

Soon enough there is a small hole enough for my small frame to fit through. Going head first I pulled my body though the small hole my shirt riding up enough that my hips scrape against the rigid wall and cut open I can feel the blood dripping as I scrap further and further. Then sharp pain in my legs cause me to stop dead in my tracks the concrete has cut through my pants and left long red gashes. I fall to the ground and cry out in pain due to the scratches on my body. Blood gushes from my hips and legs and I feel my strength drain from my body.

Then I realize that I'm free, the walls that confined me are no longer my prison. I lay in the sun for hours until I fall asleep praying that when I wake up I'm still in the soft warm grass. When I wake it is late afternoon and the sun is burning brightly. Once I'm on my feet I'm running, as far as I can, I ran through the woods and across a small stream. Who would have known freedom would have tasted this sweet, but freedom comes with a price I soon will learn this lesson when I reach another wall, I race out following the wall as far as I can only to be met with another wall, the panic shoots through my body and all I can think about is sweet escape. "So climb the wall" I say to myself. The stones are far enough apart that I can get my fingers in them, once I start up I feel my nails ripping from my fingers, biting back tears I push through the pain until I'm at the top of the wall at the top I take a moment to look at the view then down at the reminesants of my nails. If I were just any other girl the sight of blood would have grossed me out but I'm not like other girls and gore doesn't bother me.

Once my feet are firmly planted I whirled around to see three older men they had have been about fifty or sixty. The first one with milky blue eyes smiles at me. Immediately I don't trust or like him, first impressions are everything in a world like this. His impression is not good. "I did not expect you to have made it out so quickly" he chuckles his stomach bouncing with him. He's got a beer gut meaning he drinks the pain away every night before he passes out in a pool of his own vomit. "Come child we must speak" he spoke sounding much like her grandfather had a long time ago when he was still living. The milky eyed man reaches out to touch my shoulder and I jerk back. I don't want him to touch me or even come near me he's not good I sense the evil in his soul.

"What do you want old man?" I asked giving him a look not budging an inch, my gut feeling told me to run off in the other direction and get away from him as fast as I could. I wanted my freedom more than anything and I knew as long as the empire ruled there was no chance a freedom.

"It's simple I want to offer you the world" Its then that I know why my purpose is. I've been chosen, for the test. Either I emerge a hero or I die a failure during the ten trials. The first must have been breaking out of the cement building. For a moment relief washes over me, it's not Aria and that's all I can think about, Then it really sets in if I die then my whole family will die. "The look on your face tells me you know why you're here"

"Of course I've been selected to participate in the blood trials" For as long as I can remember the laws have been set in stone, once you reach the mature age of thirteen you can be selected the age of cut off is twenty. The selection is not fair, it's a death sentence chosen by merely looking in a crowd and picking a face or two. Eighteen teens from the age of thirteen to twenty are chosen to enter the blood trials. The next few days after the selection feel like hell, they don't tell you then and there who they have chosen, three days after the selection is made you wake up and there is one less face in the school crowed. They come in the middle of the night and kidnap the chosen. When my brothers were of age I could remember staying up to make sure they didn't take them, when I came of age my mother wept for days, though over the years I was lucky enough to not be chosen.

The stakes of the Blood Trials are high, win or your family dies. The empire does it for more than one reason, one being population control over the past few years the population has tripled in size. The other reason is they believe in the perfect world where only the strong and brave can live and breed. They wish to get rid of the weak by losing the game you give the impression that your family is weak and therefore not strong enough to be alive. In all of our history no one has turned down the blood trial, partly out of fear the other reason to protect their future children. My father was the first and only to turn them down guaranteeing that one of his children would be chosen. Whether it was ten or twenty years into the future. Neither of my brothers were chosen and Aria my little sister is too young, thank god it's me they chose and not her. It had to be me.

I could only imagine what Aria did when she awoke to notice that I was gone, she probably screamed and cried. Our mother was never much of a mother to us she cared more about her little dog than her children, so I had to step up and care for my younger and older siblings at a young age. Aria and I were always more than sisters, we were best friends. I'm sure my mother cursed my father and told him he was to blame, while he's already beating himself up. My brothers would be wondering why not them, they are strong and can fight good enough. In some ways my father prepared us for the trials on his off days he would take us out to a field and teach us how to use weapons and how to fight. My brothers excelled in all of the physical aspect, while I was the brain calculating my every move. Sure I'm a good enough fighter ask the other girls on the school ground but I could never kill for my own gain which is why on the day of the selection I was planning on running away.

"Fionn braid my hair for me please." Aria wines as she pounces on top of me, her legs straddling my torso. I open my eyes to see two green orbs staring back at me, her long blonde hair framing her heart shaped face while tickling my nose. Rolling her off of me I sit up rubbing my own green eyes, a small yawn escaping my pale pink lips. "Fionn are you scared" she asks and I remember just how young and scared she really is. Twelve years old only a year away from eligibility for the Trials and only hours away from the possibility that she would lose her mother figure. All I could do was hope that I was safe for one more year, but in one more years she'd be old enough and they could take her instead of me.

"Don't worry Papa's going to take care of us" I say and I know it's true because none of use exist on paper. We use fake names and credentials when we work or we are at school. That way the empire doesn't know who we truly are. We weren't born in hospitals; we almost never go to the doctor's office, only if herbs can't cure it. "We're ghost remember" I say a lame attempt a comforting the twelve year old girl, at comforting myself. "Turn around so I can do your hair" I say finally giving in to her perhaps this will brighten her gloomy mood. I let my fingers go to work while Aria hums quietly; she's always humming or singing a gift she's gotten from out mother. When I'm done I pull my own hair back out of my face in a messy bun.

Downstairs my father is reading and my mother cooking she only cooks when she is nervous, I kiss my dad on the cheek then I sit at the table waiting for breakfast. Niall my oldest brother comes down next scratching his short cut blonde hair, while yawning loudly. He and I are very un-alike, he's Sauvé and laid back a ladies' man that gets whatever he wants. He's tall with broad shoulders; his arms are huge from all the lifting he does down at the lumber yard. When Rome enters the room he's smiling, and has clearly been awake for a while he's the early bird of our family, now he's more like me than anyone else for some odd reason we both ended up pale complected with red hair, which is weird considering my mother is blonde and tan as well as my father. He is tall as well but he is leaner than Niall , his job requires him to do math all day long. Rome kisses my mother and then ruffles my bun and sits down. Aria bounces in but without a smile because she knows I'm not safe and this worries her she's acted like this for two years ever since Rome turned twenty one, she's well aware of the chances it's me or her. I'm not scared because if I go there's a chance that I could win and not have to worry about the years to come, at least then I would know my family is safe. After we eat I slide my feet into my moccasins and head out not knowing this morning was the last time I would see my family happy and smiling.

"Fionn is it" Milky eyes say bringing me out of my thoughts, then the panic sets in he knows my name. My real name the name my mother gave me at birth. He does not know me by Clarabelle the girl that goes to my school, no its Fionn the fair. I'm about to answer when a loud thump erupts from behind me. I turn to see a tall boy with dark hair that he's now pushing back. He is muscular but nowhere near as muscular as Niall. So this is my competition, seems like it should be easy even if I have to seduce him a little, "Ah that reminds me" says old milky eyes says a chuckle on his lips as he holds out his hand to one of the other older men. "Pay up Louis" he says as Louis the younger looking of the three pulls out three gold coins and drops them into his hand. "Sorry I bet Louis here that it would be Fionn who would escape before Callum" he says.

Callum is his name and it fits his dark looks, he's inched closer to the group now. I calculate how far I could get while they are preoccupied with Callum. Not far by the looks of it, probably a hundred feet before someone was after me. Now that he is closer I get a better look at him, he's got a bit of five o'clock shadow putting him at my age or a year older, his eyes are brown a harsh dark brown that makes me shudder thinking about the day I have to kill him. As I do Callum knows why he is here and he does not look pleased, but there is much confidence in his smug smile. If he thinks for one second because I'm a girl that I'll be easy to kill he's got another thing coming. It's being cocky that will get you killed you must know your opponents better than you know yourself. Knowing strengths and weaknesses is what will help you win the game. That's how I'm looking at this a game of wits and survival. If killing someone will keep my family safe I'm willing to do so.

Another competitor drops from the wall she is short about five foot four, with dark brown hair that's been shaved on one side, her eyes are big and blue cold like ice. There is something about her that I don't trust, maybe that the look in her eyes is like a lioness before the hunt. I find myself sizing her up; already I can tell she will be hard to take down. There is this look in her eyes that says she is calculating me as well, a conniving smile already forming on her lips as she drags a finger across her neck at me. "Ah Autumn I knew you would be next to join us" Louis says a smile on his lips as her turns to the next old man holding out his hand. This was truly a gamble for them; they like to pick favorites and place bets. Autumn straitens her shoulders and walks over with a strut in her step almost like she feels as if she owns the world.

The next to come is an rather attractive boy named Flynn who has long locks of brown hair and warm brown eyes, he's followed by Vixen a tattooed spiky dark haired teen with a lip ring. After Vixen is Jace the thirteen year old boy with pale blonde hair and terrified green eyes. The rest follow including, Kalliope another thirteen year old with golden brown skin and dark black ringlet curls, Helen a strawberry blonde girl who is about twenty, Aella a sweet curly haired brunette but when she smiles you can see the darker side to her, Anamaria who is quiet when she lands on the ground I barely knew she had appeared before she was introduced she is platinum blonde with golden brown eyes. The boys continue as well, Claude is a clumsy fiery red headed boy who fell halfway down the wall, Landon a cool and collected blond boy with a charming smile, Demeter a twenty year old man who did not look pleased to be here and show a lot of discipline, then there was Ryan a boy of only fifteen who looked like he spent to many days in the house playing video games rather than outside with the other kids. When everyone has arrived there are fifty or so people standing in perfect rows of nine.

"The rules to the game have changed instead of one winner we are allowing two, the two who win will guarantee their family's safety. The winners are also required to compete in the world competition with the other victors. We have brought together fifty six of you. Thirty two coming from the major cities and twenty four coming from the small villages. You will be dropped in a remote location which is monitored by camera's each night we will count the dead and let it be known how many remain. There are weapons and survival gear everywhere, finding them is a little bit hard. Remember the world is watching, its survival of the fittest from here on out"

We are taken to a huge mansion to rest up, as well as dress our wounds most of us are cut from head to toe. The mansion is a cream color with large windows and two large wooden doors. Inside the house is even more spectacular and I realize I have to be in the capitol. There is a beautiful crystal chandler that hands in the foyer, where a few dozen men and women in black great us. I assume that they are servants but when they are introduced as our training instructors I'm shocked. They are going to train us this year; this is different than the year before. Last year they dropped them into the arena the day after abduction. There was no resting period perhaps this time since worlds only happens ever twenty years it was a bigger deal, they needed people who could really do well.

In my room I peel off my damp jeans and wrinkled t-shirt. When I step in the shower it's like heaven on my skin, I stand there for what seems like hours letting the water wash away the blood, dirt and grime. I savored that shower knowing it was going to be my last for a while. Once all the blood and dirt is wash away, I start a bath, I just was to relax, if it's even possible. When there is a nice layer of bubbles and steam coming of the water I step in and slide down till my neck is the only thing out of the water. There is a knock on the door about a half hour later that causes me to jump slashing the now cold water onto the floor. "Yes" I inquire sitting up in the tub "Dinner will be served in twenty minutes" says the older man who showed me to my room. Climbing out of the tub I pull the plug out and wrap a warm soft cotton towel wrapped around my thin frame I exit the bathroom to see a new pair of jeans, shirt, boots and a brand new jacket. Everything is black and I image it's because of the trials black is hard to spot at night. When I'm finished getting dressed I comb through my ratty hair it takes me at least fifteen minutes to get all the knots out. I nearly cry about the clump of hair that was sacrificed by the brush and the comb.

When I exit my room I notice its getting darker outside, its probably near sunset. I wonder the halls until I find the dining hall, walking in I see fifty five hungry teens at the table with hunger in their eyes and drool sliding down their chins. It was then I noticed just how hungry I was my stomach made a noise that made me jump in shock. While the food is brought down and set in front of us everyone is looking around at each other. No one knows how long we had been missing from home or how long we'd actually been in the cement rooms. It had to have been long enough for me to feel faint and so hungry I could eat a cow and then more. Everyone wants to eat, filling their plates with as much as they could, even though I think its unhealthy and vegetarian the meat looks delicious and I join in with the others. A few of the girls have made a group and are talking like they aren't going to eventually kill each other, I would suspect this of boys but not of girls. Autumn is a part of their little chatty group.

"Fionn" says Autumn with a smile she's sitting three seats down from me across the table. I look up at her half expecting another death threat from the brunette. "That's an interesting name" she says before going back to her dinner. She's sitting with Aella who laughs, laughs at me rolling my eyes I pops another piece of bread into my mouth and chew. I wonder who will win and who will fall on the first day? Landon doesn't look like the fighting type more like a prep school jerk whose mommy and daddy bought him everything. Helens got to sweet of a face to even consider her a threat, Anamaria as well isn't much of a threat. The only people I can see who pose a real threat are Callum, Demeter, and Autumn. Callum who is sitting across the table from me and I can't help but notice the intense stare down he's giving me, this makes me nervous. I looked up into his unreadable eyes and purse my lips as if I'm waiting for him to say something, but he doesn't only goes back to his dinner. There's a girl at the end of the table with a face that I know too well, its Bridget. This catches me as strange they only pick one from each village but it looks like the picked two from mine. Pushing myself from the table I walk slowly around the table until I'm standing next to her "Bridget?" I ask.

"Fionn" she ask and then I see the tears in her eyes she's terrified, I may hate her but this is not a fate I would ever have given her. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you when we were kids, I just want you to know that I don't want to die with any regrets" she says and I know then she's not going to make it through the trials. I nod my head unable to speak for the moment. 

"No I'm sorry" I surprise myself by saying, it's very unlike me but seeing as how we might be dead in a matter of days I need to get it off my chest just in case I fall a victim of death. "I shouldn't have cut your hair it was mean of me to do so even if I was angry" I say. "Good luck in there" no other words are needed to say, no goodbyes or tearful hugs just a nod before I'm back at my seat scarfing down more food that my stomach can handle.

When Milky eyes come into the room everyone falls silent, he's smiling and holding a wine glass. Just as I predicted he's a drinker. Old milky eyes addresses the room "Tomorrow starts your group training you will learn simple tricks such as hunting, knot tying, and weapon usage. I suggest you get tons of sleep because you will need it." After he leaves everyone pushes themselves away from the table obviously losing their appetites, but not Autumn, Callum, Demeter or I we stay in our seats at the table as the other file out of the room. "Tough crowd" autumn laughs taking a bite of her salad with a satisfying grin.

I'm restless that night, the sand man does not visit when the handler comes to get me I'm already dressed and staring out the window at the sunrise. Wondering if my family is watching the sun as well, I know they won't watch the games. When I was young my father used to go down to the pub every day to watch it because my mother would say. "Those wretched games will not be watched in my home, it's the most horrific thing a human can do and I will not have my children watching it". Will my mother sit in front of our small TV biting her bubble gum pink nails, nervous? Hoping that maybe I can survive, that maybe I'll come home. I know when it gets to be too much my father will pull her away from the couch and take her to bed. I could only imagine how broken she is inside and it saddens me. To lose a child is a hard thing to go through; I didn't want my family to watch. I didn't want Aria to see the things that I'm capable of; I never want her to see me as a monster.

We are lead to the dining hall once again for breakfast we eat fast no one saying a word. Everyone is too nervous of the day to come to do anything but eat. I can feel eyes staring at me and when I look up I'm met with Callum dark eyes, furrowing my eye brows I turn my attention back to my food, we don't have much time before we are sent to the training hall. All morning I can't help but look forward to the lessons, I know everyone has a special skill, mine just happens to be hunting with weapons. Then I start thinking strategies if everyone thinks I'm helpless and defenseless they won't think of me as a challenge.

Over the next few days we learn the ins and out of survival, on the last day I start off at the tent making station while I build tent after tent I observe everyone else. Callum is an excellent at hand to hand combat he's up against Flynn who laughs every time he's knocked to the ground. Autumn spends most of her day at the knife throwing station, Demeter plays around with a few weapons before he starts throwing axes. Most of the others are at the weapon stations but some of the more practical people are learning how to build fires, tents, or learning what's editable and what's poisonous. I notice the archery station is left wide open, its and abandoned sport that not many people use or learn anymore, my father preferred hunting with his bow. I slowly make my way over. There is a rack of many bows, high tech, low tech, long shots, and short range. I run my fingers along the different woods and metals testing out the strings one by one until I have picked out the perfect bow.

It's simple with nothing special about it but it feels right like home, I shoot off a few arrows with no luck missing the target several times until I hit it on the target once. Its only on the outer rim but I do a happy dance anyways, its not my forte but if it's the weapon I get stuck with I could probably make do with it. The hand to hand combat instructor calls me over and asks me to spar with Callum since no one else will. I have no reason to say no, I know how to handle myself after Niall and Rome had been ganging up on me since they turned sixteen. If I could take them to the ground I could probably do the same with Callum. His eyebrow raises when I step in the ring, with my arms behind my head pulling my hair up into a mess bun. He looks amused but he shouldn't be amused he has absolutely no idea as to what he is getting himself into.

When the whistle blows a small smile plays on my lips as Callum races towards me, because I'm smaller than him it's easy to shy away from his grasp, I side step and he continues on I put my foot out and watch him tumble to the ground. It's almost too easy to outsmart him he acts on impulse rather than thinking of the best way to take down his opponent. Once he's up its round two he takes a swing at me and hits me in the shoulder knocking me back stumbling he turns his back thinking he's already won Catching myself I launch myself at him, flying through the air I wrap my legs around his waist holding onto his next trying to cut off his air supply to knock him out. He slams me up against the wall repeatedly trying to knock me off of him. Eventually he's lost enough blood flow to his head that we both fall to the ground, loosening my grip on his neck I hear him gasp for breath. I get on top of him my legs straddling his torso pinning him to the floor. With ease he rolls me off of him until he's on top of me pinning my hands to the ground. I try to twist out of his grip but it's really no use, I have to use my head literally I head but him so hard I think my own brain is rattled, he rolls off of me until he's laying on his back next to me, and he's laughing. I'm shocked because it's the first time I've heard him make a noise since we got here, his laughing is contagious and soon enough everyone is laughing including me.

In the morning we all gather in the foyer waiting for further directions I notice everyone has made some kind of adjustment to their outfits to benefit them. For me it's adding a hood to my jacket and pulling my hair up out of my face. We board a plane and are handed a parachute when the time comes we will jump, little to my surprise we are in the abandoned city of Etzel, about sixty years ago the city was bomb and deemed a waste land, and now here we are the ruins over grown with plant life the buildings are still intact, trees have grown in as well as small ponds or lakes formed. The scene reminds me of the Mayan temples that are over grown with vegetation. The city was said to be the largest in the world out shining New York and Mexico City. As I look around during my descent I noticed the wall far too high to climb; the wall was around the parameter, the only way out is fight for it. When I'm on the ground I take off my pack and wrap it up it could be useful in the future, Kalliope lands close to me so far she's the only one I've seen and I don't see her as a threat if anything she's an easy kill, when I get over to her I realize I can't kill her I just can't she reminds me too much or Aria. She's struggling to get her parachute off and I help her unstrapped them, then fold it into the back pack.

"Thank you" she says looking up at me teary eyed and I know that there can be two winners, I could help her keep her alive so that she could get home to her family. "You're going to kill me aren't you, so you can get home to your family?" she asks and it's then that I realize how cruel these games where. Here she was facing death and she wasn't even blind to it. I see so her that much of Aria in the thought of standing over her bloody lifeless body looking in her glassy eyes causes me to kneel over, throwing up into the leaves. Wiping my lips I stand up looking at her I could use an ally. "Alright kid what can you do?"

"I can set animal traps so that we can eat meat" she says and I know this a valuable skill to have, but I'm vegetarian and won't eat it so it's no use to me. I'm about to tell her no and to get lost before I really do kill her when she opens her mouth "Thank you again for helping me, I don't have much family back home my father died a few years back and my mother is pregnant other than that I have no one. When I was in the cement room I prayed to god for an angel and I think he sent me you" she says I let out a soft laugh I'm anything but an angel, I'm pretty sure my school is relieved to have me gone due to my rap sheet. Sixteen fights last year and so far six this year I'm watch you call short tempered. Papa told me it was because of my reddish copper hair it was the red head curse.

"Papa how come my hair is red and you're blonde" I ask, we're sitting on the front porch watching the sunrise; I was about ten years old I am on one knee and Aria is on the other. Papa smells like mints and cigarettes, his beard scratches my forehead as he bends down to tell me the world's most valuable secret. "Sometimes god makes extra special girls like you, he has to set the apart from all the others" he says. When I was younger I would believe anything Papa would have told me. It was the day after that I had gotten into my first fight at school.

Her name was Bridget she was the most popular girl in the whole school. I was sitting at recess minding my own business when her and her friends walked up to me. "Look girls it's an ugly ginger and you what today is don't you" she ask and they all shake their heads no, I'm wondering what's going on when she announces "Its kick a ginger day" she laughs just as she pushes me to the ground and the girls start kicking me. No one did a thing to stop it and because I liked to sit away from the teacher none of them caught it. Everyone laughed except one boy who grabbed my hand and let me up when everyone was gone. I didn't have enough time to utter a thank you before he was gone. After recess I went into class blood thirsty, she had humiliated me in front of the whole class, and now it was time for pay back. I found scissors on the teacher's desk then I found my way to my seat behind Bridget. Holding the scissors up I chopped off her beautiful long locks of blond hair. "You know what today is, cut a stupid blonde's hair off day" I say just before she pounced on me I probably shouldn't have cut off all her hair because there was nothing to grab onto while I was struggling to get on top of her, but once I was it was on. I punched her not once but three times before the teacher pulled me off of her. . Revenge was so sweet that the ass beating I got when I arrived home was worth it. Bridget never so much as looked at me again and neither did any of the other girls.

That night when I sat on the porch with a bag of ice on my head my brothers came out Niall was smiling like he was so proud of me and the odd thing was that Rome was too. "Guess you won the war" Niall says and Rome shakes his head in agreement, sure my mom was pissed but my brothers who did nothing but bully me on a daily basis were proud of me so I didn't take that lightly. "I bit her" was all I said before they both burst out into laughter. That night was by far one of the greatest nights of my life. We sat out there for hours under the stars telling stories from school laughing, until my parents came out to yell at us. "You're disturbing the neighbors" they'd say. For once I had gotten along with Niall, after that he and I got 2closer than but nowhere near as close as Rome and I.

"You think I'm an angel" I ask just a knife enters the back of her head splattering blood across my face; she drops down to the ground. If I hadn't been so consumed in my thoughts I could have protected her looking down I frown. I look up to see the petite girl with the conniving smug smile, Autumn and she's laughing, loudly and proudly. I'm astonished that she could kill and then laugh. Pulling the knife out of the young girls head, I stare down Autumn she's stopped laughing now. The atmosphere is filled with nothing but utter seriousness as I lift my hand and send the Knife whizzing through the air at her. At the last moment she steps to the side the knife only nicking her arm as it continues on into the trunk on the tree behind her. She looks at me with hatred burning in her eyes, and I the same. Autumn is the most despicable creature I have ever laid eyes on, I loathed her and everything about her. I have never felt this way about any other human being before, there is just something in me that snaps when she is around. For a split second I think about how I could kill her in cold blood and never look back, but that is just stooping to her level and I won't do it.

Now wasn't the time to glare at here, swinging the pack around my shoulder I ran off in the opposite direction making sure to look back just in case the brunette got any ideas? Once I was far enough from her I leaned against a tree and hurled whatever was left in my stomach onto the floor of the forest. Wiping my mouth with a shaky hand I continued on in hope of finding water, or food. Even a safe place to rest would be nice at the moment; my throat was dryer than when I was in the cement room. The parachute would work as a nice tent shielding me from any unwanted weather that was to come. Setting up a camp was essential; if I had a base then I could go out during the day or night and hunt down the remaining players.

Running through the ruins of the city I find an old apartment building that could be suitable for a camp the north half has been blown away but the southern walls still stand climbing up to the third floor I take a look at my surroundings a few desk and pictures hooks are all that is left, taking off my parachute I rip the fabric away from the backpack trying to keep that in good shape , I spend a half hour handing the parachute on the hoods and over the desk so that there is a small slot big enough for me to see out of and a nice roof over my head. When the shelter has been build I head out to find supplies or eatable foods, sometimes there is a break in the grass or dirt enough to see some concrete pathways. I have this feeling that everything I'm going to need is in the center of the city. It wouldn't' be smart to go there though that's where everyone will go. I find some fruits and a few nuts for now they are going to have to do so I make my way back to my camp its nearly night fall before I make it back. I can't risk starting a fire and someone finding me so I sit huddled in my tent shielded from the outside winds eating what little food I found. I'm exhausted from all the running so I lay down using my arms as a pillow and rest for the night.

In the morning I am awakened to the sound of rustling leaves down below, slowly I crawled to the edge of the foundation so that I could peer down at my intruder. Its a a dark haired boy that I can't reconize, until he turns and I see his face. It Holden the boy from the gold mining city, his eyes are searching for something. I debate whether to stay up in my shelter or to jump down on top or him and take him out.


End file.
